|
|
|
|
State doesn’t want to declare itself drought-hit
Swine Flu
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
No need to close schools, says CS
Question mark on early poll
Haryana released 15 pc land notified for acquisition
Lax security for Lt-Guv
Good Samaritans help woman bid final adieu to son
SHJC-Cong merger tomorrow
Protests against power cuts
Rajputs hold protest
Man gets life term for murder
Poppy Husk
Load Forecasting Centre opened
Move to shift industrial units opposed
HC seeks info on HCS vacancies
|
|
State doesn’t want to declare itself drought-hit
Chandigarh, August 10 In spite of a rain deficit of over 52 per cent this year, Haryana is simply admitting to “prevailing of drought-like conditions in the state.” In its representation to the Government of India, the state has said that though the area under major kharif crops like paddy, jowar, guar and sugarcane is much less than last year, it is not drought-hit. The crops that have been sown in the fields are doing well and productivity will not be hit, as “we have managed to supply adequate power to the farm sector to run tubewells and irrigate the fields”. Sources told The Tribune that the state government just wanted the Centre to compensate it for the Rs 1,700 crore that it had spent this year on buying additional power to supply to farmers. A senior state government official, requesting anonymity, said this year an additional Rs 1,007 crore had been spent on buying power for the farm sector, because of the deficit in rainfall and the slow flow of water from the Yamuna and Bhakhra. “By declaring ourselves as drought-hit, we will get minor benefits like 50 per cent subsidy on buying diesel for running tubewells. So, Haryana is seeking compensation for the amount it has already spent on purchasing power to ensure water supply to the fields,” said the official. It is learnt that a crucial meeting has been convened by the Chief Secretary tomorrow to draw a contingency plan for crops, drinking water, human and animal health and fodder. The meeting will also discuss the availability of foodgrains and the prices of essential commodities. The area under paddy has come down by 1.22 lakh hectares over last year (from 12.10 lakh hectares to 10.88 lakh hectares). Similarly, the area under sugarcane is down by 0.15 lakh hectares, under guar by 1.10 lakh hectares and under bajra by 0.64 lakh hectares. Though the state Agriculture Department had set up ambitious targets for increasing the area under these major crops this year, the severe shortfall in the rains has resulted in a shortfall in the total sown area, which has come down from 28.92 lakh hectares in the last kharif season to 26.57 lakh hectares now. The highest deficit in rainfall has been seen in Sirsa (88.2 per cent), followed by Panchkula (75.7) and Bhiwani (73 per cent). |
|
Swine Flu
Fatehabad, August 10 The doctor, an ENT surgeon and resident of Sirsa town, had examined patients in the General Hospital, Fatehabad, from July 27 to August 8, a period during which he was supposedly infected with the H1N1 virus. He examined hundreds of patients during this period as the doctor had an OPD strength of around 100 patients a day. The Civil Surgeon, Dr OP Arya, had maintained yesterday that the health authorities would conduct a survey of all patients examined by the infected ENT surgeon and follow them up to rule out any possibility of an outbreak of the disease. However, inquiries by The Tribune reveal that there is no record of the addresses of patients in the OPD registers of doctors or at the reception counter. While the registers of doctors mention the names of patients only, the one kept at the reception provides information about the name, sex, age and village. Going by the fact that several persons of the same name are usually present in villages, it will be difficult to locate a patient without knowing his\her father’s name or address. Meanwhile, the ENT surgeon, whose H1N1 positive status has created panic in the area, today claimed that he did not contact the infection from Mangalore, as is being made out by the authorities, but from the General Hospital, Fatehabad, where he examined patients till August 8. “The window period of swine flu, as mentioned in all books, is a maximum of seven days. I developed the first symptoms of it on August 4, which means I came in contact with the virus on July 29 or afterwards, when I was doing my duties in the General Hospital, Fatehabad,” maintained the doctor, adding that it also meant that the person from whom he contacted the flu in Fatehabad was still roaming free and untested. The Civil Surgeon maintained that a rapid response team had been constituted under the Deputy Civil Surgeon, Dr DK Dadhich, to deal with the
situation. |
|
No need to close schools, says CS
Gurgaon, August 10 He observed that a sensitisation and awareness drive in this regard needed to be carried out in educational institutions as till now a majority of the reported victims were students. The Chief Secretary was addressing a gathering after inaugurating a dispensary and computer lab in the hostel wing of the Haryana Institute of Public Administration (HIPA) here today. He also planted a sapling on the premises of the HIPA. After the inauguration, the Chief Secretary discussed the swine flu matter with the Divisional Commissioner. He opined that there were many misconceptions and rumours about the disease, which needed to be cleared. For this, he said the Deputy Commissioners should organise meetings of the principals and headmasters of schools and colleges in which doctors could tell them about the symptoms and preventive measures to control the disease. The Chief Secretary maintained that there was no need to close schools due to swine-flu scare. He asked the Divisional Commissioner to instruct the Deputy Commissioners in the division to take effective steps in this direction. “After that, the municipal staff, aanganwari workers, ANMs and multi-purpose health workers can also be made aware about the symptoms of swine flu,” he added. Later, the Chief Secretary also inaugurated a capacity-building training programme for engineers at the HIPA, where he asked the engineers to inculcate the habit of working on computers to enhance their efficiency. |
|
Question mark on early poll
Chavan’s hint The Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office and in charge of Haryana in the Congress, Prithviraj
Chavan, on Monday hinted that the Assembly elections in Haryana would be held along with those of
Maharashtra. He added that it would be no surprise if the Congress got 75 to 80 seats out of 90. Chavan was speaking at the inaugural function of a mill in Yelip village of Satara district in Maharashtra. The mill was inaugurated by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda
Chandigarh, August 10 Before Hooda’s announcement, it was widely believed that after Independence Day, the state Assembly would be dissolved any day, paving the way for simultaneous elections in the state along with those of the Maharashtra Assembly sometime in October next. The Election Commission has the authority to order elections to any Assembly or the Lok Sabha six months prior to the expiry of its term. Since the present Haryana Assembly was constituted on March 21, 2005, the six-month period starts from September 20. Before that the commission has no authority to announce the elections because the moment the elections are announced, the model code of conduct comes into force, reducing the government to the status of a caretaker government, which cannot take policy decisions or make popular announcements. The election process takes at least 25 days — from the notification to the polling — to be completed. Normally the commission announces the election programme two weeks to four weeks before the issue of the notification. In the case of Haryana, the commission cannot announce the elections before September 20 as before that it has no authority to do so, unless the Governor dissolves the House on the recommendation of the state Cabinet. According to Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi, the commission normally does not curtail the term of a House unnecessarily and it orders elections as near to the expiry of its term as possible. He says the commission ordered early elections in Himachal Pradesh only because voters of the high-altitude constituencies had gone to court demanding that their votes should be counted along with the rest of the state. The commission had found merit in the demand. When contacted Haryana Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Singh Surjewala said the necessary steps would be taken as and when required. He refused to say anything about the possibility of early elections in the state. He said everything would be done as per the requirements of the Constitution. Sources in the Congress said their party was not affected by the timing of the elections. The result would be same whether the elections were held in October or February next, they claimed. |
||
|
Haryana released 15 pc land notified for acquisition
Chandigarh, August 10 The information has been collected by Additional-Director, Urban Estates Department, Vikas Yadav for period ranging from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2008, from all land acquisition officers posted in the department. The data assumes significance as the Punjab and Haryana High Court has all along been asserting that it is prima facie of the view that the builders enter into deals with farmers after the initiation of acquisition process as the land prices shoot up. They then manage to get valuable land released from the process. Only recently, the high court had ruled that the release of land from the acquisition process to builders or their allies in Haryana was “gross abuse of power”. The Bench headed by Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel had also made it clear that the land released from the acquisition process to private builders might have to be restored to the state, if the action was found to be vitiated by fraud. The court had earlier asked the secretary concerned in Haryana to provide details of the land acquired and released by the state during the past three years. The Bench of Justice Goel and Justice Jitendra Chauhan had sought information in the form of an affidavit on “the extent of land notified for acquisition from January 1, 2006, to December 31, 2008”. “It will also be appreciated if the notifications and the orders of release are also compiled and furnished to the court,” it said. The Bench had also asked for information on the “extent of land released from the acquisition in the period, irrespective of the date of acquisition”.
|
||
|
INLD protest against rising prices
Sirsa, August 10 The agitating workers also demanded that Haryana be declared a drought-hit state. The INLD and BJP workers led by Dabwali MLA Sita Ram and district INLD president Padam Jain assembled in the grain market and marched in procession through main markets of Dabwali town towards the office of the subdivisional magistrate. The demonstrators gave their memorandum to the Tehsildar when they were informed that the SDM was on leave. Addressing the workers Sita Ram and Padam Jain alleged that the spiralling prices of essential commodities had broken the back of the common man. Accusing the Bhupinder Singh Hooda government of discriminating against
Sirsa, the INLD leaders alleged that while development activities and the giving of jobs were in abundance in the Rohtak area, people of Sirsa district had been left high and dry. |
|
C’wealth Games
Gurgaon, August 10 This was stated by the Union Minister for Tourism, Kumari Selja, during a workshop for capacity building of service providers organised at the Haryana Institute of Public Administration here today. The Minister said as part of the preparations for the Commonwealth Games, the Union Government, in collaboration with the private sector, was training manpower and ensuring the provision of quality facilities for the participants and tourists. She said service providers such as drivers and conductors, who were the first to interact with tourists, were being trained to behave properly and show proper courtesy towards the visitors. “These service providers will be groomed to act as ambassadors for the country’s positive image-building before the visiting foreigners,” she said, adding that for this, they were given lessons in spoken English along with CDs to practise at home. Interacting with newspersons on the occasion, Kumari Selja said the provision of quality facilities was being ensured to make the visit of the participants and tourists comfortable and memorable. She said more hotel rooms were being constructed in the NCR and Haryana alone would provide more than 6,000 rooms for the Games. Similar arrangements were being made in Noida, she added. Replying to a question, the Minister claimed that foreigners were impressed with the way in which swine flu cases were being treated in India. Additional Secretary of the Tourism Department and Joint Director of the organising committee for the Commonwealth Games Sanjay Kothari said the Ministry had a target of training 5,000 drivers and conductors in connection with the Games. |
|
Lax security for
Lt-Guv
Ambala, August 10 The Lt-Governor of Puducherry, Iqbal Singh, was on the way to Panipat. He made a brief halt at the resort. A message of his brief halt was transmitted to the Ambala administration in advance. The Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Justice Tirath Singh Thakur, was also present in Naraingarh close to Ambala City at that time to inaugurate a new court complex there. Three other senior judges of the high court were also present there. Senior police officers of Ambala, including the Superintendent of Police, were camping there to make security arrangements for the VIPs. The Lt-Governor informed the Chief Secretary of Haryana regarding the matter. Ambala SP Y Puran Kumar, while taking a serious note of the matter, placed an ASI, a sub-inspector and five constables deployed at Kingfisher on that day under suspension. An inquiry has also been ordered in this regard. |
|
Good Samaritans help woman bid final adieu to son
Sirsa, August 10 Joney, who had gone to Australia for pursuing a course in hotel management on May 5, suffered fever and vertigo on July 21 and died the next day in a hospital in that country. Joney’s mother, a widow, had sent her son to Australia after selling the family’s ancestral house in Ellenabad town to arrange for his fees and other expenditure. When the shocking news of Joney’s death was received by the family comprising his mother Sunderi Devi and brother Kapil, the poor family did not have the wherewithal to bring back his body to the country. Wailing appeals of the grieved family to the government and the authorities concerned to bring back the body of Joney to the country failed to move the authorities. Nor did the state or the central government provide any help to the bewildered family. Amidst the fading hopes of the mother of seeing her son’s face for the last time, efforts by some good Samaritans in Australia continued since Joney’s death on July 22. Students of this area in Australia formed a group and collected money from amongst themselves to pool in funds needed for transportation of Joney’s body to India. It was with their efforts that a distraught mother was able to see the body of her son 20 days after his death. The body reached Indira Gandhi International Airport yesterday and reached Talwara Khurd around midnight. No political leader or any representative from the district administration attended the cremation today. |
|
SHJC-Cong merger tomorrow
Chandigarh, August 10 The SHJC is headed by Subhash Batra, who was a Minister in the Bhajan Lal Cabinet. A senior leader of the SHJC and former minister Krishan Murti Hooda said here today that his party under the leadership of Batra would merge with the Congress in the presence of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Haryana Congress president Phool Chand Mullana at the head office of the Haryana Congress here on August 12. Krishan Murti said his party held a rally at Nuh in Mewat district yesterday to take a final decision to merge with the Congress. He said it was his challenge to Bishnoi or Bhajan Lal to hold a rally bigger than the SHJC’s Nuh rally. He said instead of facing the public Bishnoi had been “hiding” in his Delhi residence ever since he was challenged by Batra and him (Krishan Murti). He claimed the SHJC was the real HJC. |
|
Protests against power cuts
Sirsa/Fatehabad, August 10 Although the power supply has been far from satisfactory in the area ever since the parliamentary elections ended, the situation has worsened during the past two weeks. Four or five power cuts of one hour or even longer durations are now being considered normal in urban areas. The situation is even worse as “zero cuts” (cuts of unannounced duration) and power cuts to repair snags have also become common these days. The supply of drinking water is the first casualty of these power cuts because either the water supply is poor or residents are unable to pump in water due to the power cuts. The situation in rural areas is even worse. Not a day passes when villagers do not hold demonstration or block a road at one place or the other. Villagers from Dhigtania, Chauburja and Rangri blocked vehicular traffic on Jamal Road in Sirsa today. They alleged that they had been given “24-hour supply domestic connections”, but the power was supplied for only one to two hours at night. DHBVN officials were beaten up by villagers at Kalanwali, when they objected to some villagers trying to shift power supply to their power lines. Villagers from Indachui, Chander Kalan, Chander Khurd, Bhodi blocked Chandigarh Road near Tohana in Fatehabad today alleging erratic supply of power. The villagers also barged into the substation at Pirthala and switched off supplies to all areas. They alleged that they have not been receiving any power for the past five days. The Ratia-Sardulgarh road was also blocked for over two hours by villagers from Rattakhera today. |
|
Rajputs hold protest
Faridabad, August 10 They urged their leaders to take up the issue with parties, especially the Congress and the state government, to rectify the records. They also alleged that leaders of various political parties, including the Congress, wangle support in the name of community especially during the elections. Thereafter, they neglect the community. Leaders of the Haryana Rajput Pratinidhh Sabha (HRPS) led by a retired IAS officer of the state, Hukam Singh Rana, visited several villages on Saturday and Sunday in NIT, Prithla, Ballabgarh and Palwal Assembly segments to mobilise support for a state-level sammelan of the community scheduled in Karnal on August 21. The Rajput community asked the parties, especially the Congress, to give ticket to one of its members in the newly created Assembly segment of Prithla on account of their significant presence in it. The leaders also visited Chaisa, Sikri, Aasauti, Ballabgarh and Palwal. They presented a “pugree” to HS Rana and urged him to launch a political campaign for proper representation of the community. The community urged the HRPS to throw a challenge to all parties to dispute the allegation that the community’s numerical strength had been underplayed in the official statistics. |
|
Lawyers hold protest against police
Bhiwani, August 10 However, when he did not come, they went to his office. They raised slogans outside the SP’s office following which he came out and invited the lawyers to his office to listen to their grievances. Association president Pradeep Bajad told the SP that the police was booking advocates without any reason. The SP gave them a patient hearing and assured them of necessary action. |
|
Man gets life term for murder
Sonepat, August 10 However, other alleged accused - Rakesh, Dharmendra and Chander Singh of Khana and Devender and Surender of Dighal village - were acquitted by the court for want of evidence. Rajpal of Khanda had lodged a complaint that on July 24, 2005, his nephew Praveen and Nasseb had come to Khanda village during a quarrel between his family and of Chander Singh. During the fight, Chander Singh fired at Praveen from his licensed rifle and Praveen died on the spot. In his complaint, he named Rakesh, Kapil, Dharmendra and Chander Singh of Khana and Devender and Surender of Dighal village as alleged accused. The case of Kapil is still pending in juvenile court. |
|
|
Poppy Husk
Kurukshetra, August 10 In default of payment of the fine, the accused shall further undergo rigorous imprisonment for three years. The poppy husk was seized from a cattle shed owned by Kaipy. The contraband was kept in jute bags which had been concealed by the accused underneath a heap of fodder in the cattle shed. |
|
|
Load Forecasting Centre opened
Panchkula, August 10 The centre will enable the Haryana power utilities to assess the load in the future so that the utilities can plan its strategy and take appropriate measures keeping in view the load growth. It would help ensure power availability as per the demand from “season to season and for different times of the day” throughout the year, said Prasad after the inauguration. The centre would forecast the load on an hourly, daily, seasonal and monthly basis. |
|
Move to shift industrial units opposed
Yamunanagar, August 10 In a memorandum sent to Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda, president of the chamber Samira Saluja said in the Old Industrial Area, the size of the plots was much bigger in comparison to the plots at the HSIIDC. All industrialists of the Old Industrial Area have expressed resentment over the decision to shift the industry to the HSIIDC, she further said. |
|
|
HC seeks info on HCS vacancies
Chandigarh, August 10 Justice Ranjit Singh also fixed August 27 as the next date of hearing for enabling the state to file its response to the matter. The directions follow a bunch of petitions seeking the quashing of the impugned order dated August 5, 2008, “illegally” ordering them to be repatriated to their parent department. In one such petition, Devi Lal Sihag and 10 others had contended that they were being targeted “by an illegal, pre-determined mindset of the respondents to somehow hold the petitioners as surplus to the cadre strength and repatriate them to their erstwhile department.” The petitioners contended they had worked as HCS officers for over three years and 10 months to the full satisfaction of the state since their initial appointment on October 4, 2004; had completed their probation period.
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
